One thing that I think always gets overlooked is the accessibility of the performance of these bikes. Let’s take for example a normal sportbike encounter… the stoplight drag race. If you’re planning on launching your Ducati Panigale off the stoplight at near its maximum acceleration, you’ll need to get your timing just right… revs way up (everyone staring at you now)… wait for the light… wait… wait… then perfect finesse of clutch release and throttle application… too much and the bike wheelies, too little and it bogs and everyone laughs at you for making such a ruckus. Meanwhile, our hero on the Empulse simply waits for the light to turn green, twists the throttle and achieves the optimal launch, every time, over and over and over… while the Panigale owner botches it 9 times out of ten. While the Empulse may not compete with a Ducati Panigale in “on-paper” acceleration, my experience tells me that in the real world, the performance the bike does have is far more accessible to the everyday rider. This is what I believe you’re hearing about in the rider’s real world reviews. It’s not imagined, the bike IS faster more of the time, in more conditions, for more people…

No surprise that I am looking forward to a ride on the Empulse. Whether it happens when the Brammo Empulse Road Show comes through Kansas City (probably not going to happen, but one can dream) or when I visit my fellow member of the Society of Brammo Evangelists of the Year, Jeremy Dory, who just won an Empulse R, I intend to test out the real world accessibility of performance.

“or when I visit my fellow member of the Society of Brammo Evangelists of the Year, Jeremy Dory, who just won an Empulse R, I intend to test out the real world accessibility of performance.”
September is a long way away though…